Building on the past: A multi-service center in Houston's Fourth Ward (Texas)

Author

Minus, Stephen Keator

Date

1992

Advisor

Cannady, William T.

Degree

Master of Architecture

Abstract

Houston's Fourth Ward has often been the object of redevelopment schemes which call for extensive change. The most recent such plan would save neighborhood houses, but would displace residents. To so easily separate buildings from their occupants requires an architecture concerned primarily with aesthetics.
My thesis' premise is the desirability of maintaining the Fourth Ward's current population. Change must occur to stop this community from disintegrating due to poverty, drugs, and neglect. A community center located in and around an abandoned school, well known by residents, would act as a reinvigorated center for the neighborhood. Proposed new buildings mediate between this monumental school and shotgun homes around it. A sloped court connects neighborhood streets to the school's raised floor and serves as common entry to child care, elderly care, and commercial facilities.